Make Time for Movies in Time

Broderick | Make Time for Movies in Time Suzanne Broderick Heartland Community College Make Time for Movies in Time everal months ago, my local cable company started carrying The History Channel, a channel created solely for those of us who enjoy history on film. Among its variety of programming, The History Channel airs superb documentaries covering an enormous range of topics from Thomas Edison to the Eiffel Tower. Another fascinating program, The Real West, presents the true West as differentiated from the familiar Hollywood West, inviting noted historians of America's West such as Dee Smith to comment on Western myths versus Western reality. As much as I enjoy and appreciate these programs, I find that I have become addicted to one particular program on the History Channel- Movies In Time. I can't resist historical movies, and tempting me even more, Movies In Time features guest historians who comment on the films, "sorting fact from fiction," and thereby offering mini-history lessons based on Hollywood films. Veteran newsman Sander Vanocur acts as host to these prominent historians as they critique the strengths and weaknesses of filmed history. This week alone, I have watched three very different and very interesting films on Movies In Time. The first film, The Juggler, was released in the early 1950s and set in 1948. The movie depicts a concentration camp survivor's struggle to start a new life in Israel after losing his entire family to the Holocaust. Kirk Douglas plays Hans, the immigrant who is having trouble living in the present and letting go of the past, especially his family,. This film is interesting and unusual because it is deals with Holocaust survivors so soon after the fact. Professor Henry Feingold of City University of NewYork, an expert in Jewish History, appeared as the guest historian for the film. Feingold called The Juggler "white propaganda," meaning it was intended as favorable propaganda for the recently created state of Israel. Feingold felt The Juggler appeared dated because it romanticized the kibbutz. He explained that, early in its history, Israel saw itself as an idealized agrarian country which depended on the kibbutz. Indeed in The Juggler, the recent immigrant, played by Douglas, is encouraged 86 I Film & History Regular Feature | Film Reviews to settle down on a kibbutz, his "new home." This film, according to Feingold, depicts an Israel that, if it ever did exist, faded a long time ago and gave way to a more urbanized, industrial society. However, the idea of the Israeli immigrant starting over, remarrying and raising a second family was indeed accurate . I was interested to learn from Professor Feingold that Israel had changed so drastically since its creation. He stated that although many of the most important officials of the Israeli government boast nostalgically of a kibbutz background, the Israel of today has definitely put the kibbutz in its past. The second, and by far the best movie, on The History Channel this week was the 1964 film, Zulu which was shown in letterbox form doing justice to the expansive African landscape. This film combines good history and good art resulting in an extremely watchable and accurate retelling of this extraordinary historical event in which a handful of British soldiers withstood an attack by 4,000 Zulu warriors. Apparently The History Channel concurred , and Zulu received special attention. Preceding the screening of the film, a specially produced, hour-long program was aired, "Rorke's Drift: Against All Odds."Newsman Roger Mudd introduced this production which attempted to clarify the incidents portrayed in Zulu. He was aided by British author and historian, Ian Knight, who provided background information on such issues as the prevailing attitudes in 1879 of the Victorians toward their outposts in Africa. "Rorke's Drift" also quoted from military records and dispatches concerned with the entire campaign. In addition , this auxiliary to Zulu provided "eye witnesses"—present-day actors dressed in Red Coats who recounted their experiences and occasionally offered motives and explanations pertaining to the Rorke's Drift incident. By the end of "Rorie's Drift: AgainstAll Odds," The History Channel's audience was definitely primed for Zulu. During breaks in the film, Movies In Time dispensed...